Lady Lions dominate Lady Cobras from start
JESSIEVILLE — Lilliana Fehrenbacher finished with a double-double to lead the Jessieville Lady Lions to a 37-21 win over Fountain Lake Tuesday at the Jessieville Sports Arena.
Fehrenbacher put up 13 points while grabbing 11 rebounds to lead the Lady Lions (8-2) while blocking two shots, dishing out one assist and stealing once in the win.
“We didn’t play very well offensively,” said Fountain Lake head coach Chris Mungle. “Of course, we knew they were going to come out and press us. We beat the press, got the ball down and we just couldn’t finish early on. Both teams struggled early offensively.
“In the second half, we just never got going offensively. We got killed on the boards tonight. There were several possessions where they got three or four shot opportunities on one possession. We just didn’t play very well in any aspect.”
The Lady Lions put the pressure on the Lady Cobras (4-6) from the start, but while their defensive pressure created problems for Fountain Lake, their offensive performance struggled early as Taryn Anderson put the first point on the board on a free throw with 1:32 off the clock in the opening quarter.
“Early on, we missed easy buckets,” Jessieville head coach Magen Scrivner said. “We did that for three quarters. Finally, in the fourth quarter, we started rolling a little bit. I just felt like we didn’t start going offensively until the fourth quarter.”
Fehrenbacher got the offense going with 5:35 remaining on a bucket in the paint off an assist from Lexi Bassett to close the quarter on a 6-2 run.
Emoree Martin opened the second quarter with a shot just eight seconds into the period off a Cherokee Fields’ assist, but that would be as close as the Lady Cobras would get in the quarter as Jessieville pulled to a 16-9 lead at halftime.
Buckets by Martin and Karli Bryant pulled Fountain Lake back to within three, 16-13, by the 5:22 mark, but the Lady Lions were still unable to pull away, leading 19-15 going into the final eight minutes.
“We played pretty good defensively,” Mungle said. “We just couldn’t get a rebound. When you give them three or four shot opportunities, it’s kind of hard. It wasn’t from a lack of effort. It was from a lack of execution.”
“We adjusted to some things defensively that I asked them to do,” Scrivner said. “We had some great offensive rebounds. I felt like we missed some easy shots, but we also made up for that some on the offensive boards. That was something we’ve been talking about, trying to bring more offense, get more offensive rebounds.”
Jessieville opened the final quarter on a 9-0 run to take a 24-15 lead with 6:14 left in the game, Anderson hitting a trey to start a 3-for-3 run from beyond the arc to lead the Lady Lions to a 35-18 advantage with 3:28 to go.
Jessieville outrebounded Fountain Lake, 38-20, with 18 rebounds on the offensive end of the court. The Lady Cobras pulled down just one offensive rebound.
Anderson was 3-for-6 from distance for 10 points while grabbing four rebounds, Jaidyn Fortenberry had five rebounds with three assists and three steals, Amy De Haas had five rebounds with two steals and Bassett finished with four assists, four rebounds and two steals.
Martin led Fountain Lake with six points with three rebounds and a steal before fouling out, and Presley Hamric and Bryant added five each. Hamric grabbed six rebounds with two assists and two steals, while Bryant had five rebounds with two steals. Fields had four rebounds with two assists, one block and one steal.
The Lady Cobras will travel to Booneville (1-5) Friday, and Jessieville will be at Lamar (7-2).